~Page 301~

Henry Clay Sturgis

Henry Clay Sturgis, of the firm of H. C. Sturgis & Co., proprietors of the Citizens Bank of Oelwein, is a native of Fayette County, Iowa. He was born in West Union and is a son of the Hon. P. F. Sturgis, of that city, whose sketch is given elsewhere. He was educated in the public schools and at the Upper Iowa University and on completing his course at that institution accepted the position of Deputy County Treasurer of Fayette County, which he filled for a period of eight years, from February, 1878, until January, 1886. For the two succeeding years he was engaged in the real estate business at West Union when in company with his father he established the Citizens Bank of Oelwein which he has since conducted with marked success.

Mr. Sturgis was married in Waucoma, Iowa, on the 8th of January 1880, to Miss Dora E. Scoville, daughter of William and Phoebe (Stannard) Scoville. The lady was born in Palatine, Cook County, Ill., and is a member of the Presbyterian Church. One child was born of their union, a son, Lew C., born in West Union, June 4, 1883.

Mr. Sturgis removed with his family to Oelwein in March, 1888, and has since made that city his home. In addition to his banking business he is largely interested in real estate, in company with his father in Fayette County and to a considerable extent outside. They have upwards of one thousand acres of valuable farming land in this county, and in December, 1890, Mr. Sturgis purchased a half-interest in the drug business of Perry H. Peterson, of Oelwein, and the firm is now Peterson & Sturgis, successors to Peterson & Cole. Mr. Sturgis was a charter member of West Union Lodge No. 124, K. P., and has since maintained his membership with that lodge. In politics he is a pronounced Republican but is not actively identified with party management. His business methods are such as to commend him to popular favor and under his management the Citizens Bank of Oelwein has prospered from the start, and is rapidly winning warm friends among the townspeople of that place and the surrounding county.

The Citizens Bank of which H. C. Sturgis & Co. are proprietors was established in Oelwein in March, 1888, by the Hon. P. F. Sturgis of West Union and his son Henry Clay, the resident and managing partners. This bank does a general banking business, receives deposits, buys and sells exchange and makes collections with dispatch. Its financial standing is guaranteed by the well-known extensive real-estate possessions of its proprietors and their business qualifications and unquestioned integrity. The Hon. P. F. Sturgis, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work, is a pioneer settler and merchant of West Union whose prominence and high standing throughout Northern Iowa is a matter of history, while his son, through many years' service in the County Treasurer's Office, enjoys an extended acquaintance throughout Fayette County where he commands the confidence and esteem of all with whom he has had business relations.

~transcribed and contributed to Fayette Co. by Carol Williams